Hello,
 
My computer freezes from time to time. The is nothing I can do to replicate it. Sometimes I am not even doing anything at all. Sometimes I just turn it on in the morning, go for a coffee and it is frozen when I am back.
I have done a memory test with memtest and did not detect any ram errors.
Where else can I look?
Does win7 create a log of these freezes?
This is quite annoying no only from screwing up a session, but also because I have to do a hard reset and sometimes win7 won't start because it was not properly shut down. Sometimes I need to go through recover, restore, start in safe mode etc before it works again.
Thanks
joni

Hi,
hard to say, imo it´s only possible to speculate about the reason of the
freezes, cause of  
that few info´s you gave:
 
Sleeping option of windows ,for example 10 minutes?
Anti-Vir?
Network?
Update?
Printer (-driver)?
Graphic card driver?
 
Have checked all this?
 
Hope it helps.
Pragi
 

I had that for a while on my new PC. Couldn't figure it out no matter what I tried. Eventually while trying to do a roll back on my video card drivers there was a Windows update became available in connection with my video card drivers and it fixed it. Apparently a previous update had broken something and this fixed it. As I had just built this system I got a bulk download of Windows fixes on installing the OS and this broke something. From the symptoms though I'm sure it was graphics related.

when u say it freezes, does the numlock light toggle? Is there any disk activity? can the pc be ping'd from another pc on the network or can you "net view \\pcname" from another pc on the network?
 
what you could do is maybe think back and figure out when the problem started to occur, did you make any changes, did u install any software or new devices?  If so, maybe remove the device or uninstall the software you had recently installed.  Maybe go back to a previously saved restore point.
 
check your windows event logs (start->run and type: eventvwr) and expand "Windows log" check under the application and system events - usually h/w errors would be logged to the system log and the drivers or application errors would log in application event log. take a look at you security event log as well around the times the freeze occurs - the same should apply for the other logs mentioned, see if there is a pattern...
 
you could setup a remote debugging session, you'll need to know how to perform online remote debugging while the system is hung... Or you could try a user initiated system crash and debug the memory dump file you generate - usually you'd look for run away threads - but this is a little advanced and if you haven't been trained in this area then you need to rely on your event logs..
 
you could also run perfmon and collect performance data on processes, memory, cpu utilization, etc,... 
 
maybe join one of the Microsoft forum groups and run it by them, they'll ask you heaps of similar questions as above and probably get you to dump the system and they'd be happy to debug it for you.  you'd need to install debugging tools for windows as a starter...
 
maybe find yourself a spare disk, disconnect your boot drive and connect this new drive to it and re-install windows and see if you still get these lockups...
 
oh and check to see if all your cards in the box a properly seated, cables are properly connected etc,.. and does your pc over heat? check the bios temp settings... is your pc overclocked? maybe its clocked up too high, try setting it back down if it has been overclocked..
 
make sure your antivirus software is up to date too, scan your system for viruses...
 
you could also do a driver verification and see if there are drivers that are installed that haven't been certified....
 
 

I come to think of usb devices loose power - and driver of some sort hangs.
 
Any hardware locks maybe that depend on power?
 
Go through usb root hubs and usb hubs and turn off power management. Don't allow to turn this device off or whatever it says.
 
Otherwise as said - graphics drivers.

You didn't specify whether the audio interface is external or internal, but if it's external and connected to a USB port, make sure your USB ports are configured to never power down. You do this via Device Manager and/or Power Options. Even if your interface doesn't rely on USB for its DC power, there can be issues with the driver hanging after the port has been powered down.

I had this kind of problem (seemingly random system freezes curable only by hard reboot) and oddly enough it turned out to be happening only when I was using Google Chrome.  Not sure whether problem was with Chrome or some other problem on my system that Chrome was triggering, but when I replaced Chrome with Firefox the problem went away.

thanks. replies bellow.
 

Pragi
Hi,
hard to say, imo it´s only possible to speculate about the reason of the
freezes, cause of  
that few info´s you gave:
 
Sleeping option of windows ,for example 10 minutes?
NO
Anti-Vir?
Don't use antivirus
Network?
NO
Update?
Which update?
Printer (-driver)?
No printer.
Graphic card driver?
updated to latest driver version
 
Have checked all this?
 
Hope it helps.
Pragi
 

Hu Mudgel,
 
I also suspect is graphic card related.
A guy from ADK suggested I moved the ilok from a usb3 to a usb2 port. I have done that this morning and up to now not a single freeze, but too early to say...
thank you
joni
 

mudgel
I had that for a while on my new PC. Couldn't figure it out no matter what I tried. Eventually while trying to do a roll back on my video card drivers there was a Windows update became available in connection with my video card drivers and it fixed it. Apparently a previous update had broken something and this fixed it. As I had just built this system I got a bulk download of Windows fixes on installing the OS and this broke something. From the symptoms though I'm sure it was graphics related.

JimmyBoy, 
Thank you for taking the time to write such a long and detailed reply.
I will git it a try. A bit too technical for me though ;-)
Replies bellow...
 

JimmyBoy
when u say it freezes, does the numlock light toggle? Is there any disk activity? can the pc be ping'd from another pc on the network or can you "net view \\pcname" from another pc on the network?
 
-When it freezes it really freezes. There in no noise, mouse/keyboard are dead...
Haven't tried to ping it from another pc.
 
what you could do is maybe think back and figure out when the problem started to occur, did you make any changes, did u install any software or new devices?  If so, maybe remove the device or uninstall the software you had recently installed.  Maybe go back to a previously saved restore point.
- I can't do this. This started a long time ago. Got worse with time. But since  then I have installed tons of things so its a no go...
 
check your windows event logs (start->run and type: eventvwr) and expand "Windows log" check under the application and system events - usually h/w errors would be logged to the system log and the drivers or application errors would log in application event log. take a look at you security event log as well around the times the freeze occurs - the same should apply for the other logs mentioned, see if there is a pattern...
 
- Will try this.
 
you could setup a remote debugging session, you'll need to know how to perform online remote debugging while the system is hung... Or you could try a user initiated system crash and debug the memory dump file you generate - usually you'd look for run away threads - but this is a little advanced and if you haven't been trained in this area then you need to rely on your event logs..
 
- The adk guys will have a look at it.
 
you could also run perfmon and collect performance data on processes, memory, cpu utilization, etc,... 
 
- sure. will try that.
 
maybe join one of the Microsoft forum groups and run it by them, they'll ask you heaps of similar questions as above and probably get you to dump the system and they'd be happy to debug it for you.  you'd need to install debugging tools for windows as a starter...
maybe find yourself a spare disk, disconnect your boot drive and connect this new drive to it and re-install windows and see if you still get these lockups...
 
- good idea.
 
oh and check to see if all your cards in the box a properly seated, cables are properly connected etc,.. and does your pc over heat? check the bios temp settings... is your pc overclocked? maybe its clocked up too high, try setting it back down if it has been overclocked..
 
- Did that yesterday. opened the box, sprayed it for dust, checked all cards and cables. all fine.
 
make sure your antivirus software is up to date too, scan your system for viruses...
 
- I don't use antivirus. If I install one, which one would you recommend?
 
you could also do a driver verification and see if there are drivers that are installed that haven't been certified....
 
- OK
 

Thanks a lot